Northern Rail services are also suffering disruption because they use the same section of railway and are running on one track instead of two.

Trains running between Newcastle and Nunthorpe may be cancelled or delayed by up to 30 minutes.

Two services have been amended.

The 21:18 between Carlisle and Middlesborough will run direct from Newcastle to Middlesborough calling at Thornaby station only.

The 21:10 from Middlesborough to Hexham will run direct from Middlesborough to Newcastle calling at Thornaby station only.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Engineers have been on site since then attempting to repair the 500m of overhead cables that have been damaged but unfortunately, the damaged area includes bespoke pieces of equipment which are manufactured outside of Britain and which are not easy to replace.

“Because of this, we now anticipate that normal service will be resumed on Thursday morning at the earliest, with repairs taking place over the next three nights.

“We fully understand the immense frustration of passengers whose journeys are being disrupted and we assure them that we are working tirelessly to repair the damage and get services running normally again.”

These delays come after a troubled day for commuters in Newcastle.

Tuesday morning saw heavy congestion due to the Metro suspension made worst by a four-car crash on the Tyne Bridge.

Photo from Northumbria Police showing one of the cars involved in Tyne Bridge crash

The smash happened on the A167 Tyne Bridge inbound and the Pilgrim Street Roundabout in Newcastle city centre .

Both lanes were closed, and although one was re-opened 15 minutes later, the other stayed shut well into the morning rush hour.

This caused gridlock on the A167 and huge tailbacks on other roads as motorists sought to avoid the area.

The works added to the traffic chaos on the A184 Felling Bypass, which saw vehicles queueing back to Testos Roundabout in South Tyneside.

All lanes on the Tyne Bridge were re-opened shortly after 8.30am but residual delays remained well into Tuesday morning.

Commuters complained of being stuck in traffic for more than an hour heading from Gateshead into Newcastle , while bus companies were forced to divert some services to avoid the delays.